13–15 Dec 2017
ESTEC
Europe/Amsterdam timezone

RadMag combined cosmic ray and magnetic field measuring space weather instrument development for CubeSat/SmallSat applications

14 Dec 2017, 11:40
20m
Newton 2 (ESTEC)

Newton 2

ESTEC

Keplerlaan 1, 2200 AG Noordwijk

Speaker

Mr Balazs Zabori (MTA Centre for Energy Research)

Description

To study space weather and to protect our technology, as a first step, it is necessary to develop and establish an advanced, real-time monitoring system to provide scientific data on space radiation (electron and proton spectra, flux of heavier ions) and the status of the magnetosphere in order to gain the possibility for a reliable forecast capability. The expansion of the CubeSat/SmallSat industry will make it possible in the near future to launch orbital constellations with relevant, miniaturised instrumentation providing in-situ measurements of the space weather environment in near real-time. Thus the development of a new, combined, space weather monitoring instrument package (called RadMag) has been initiated at the Centre for Energy Research, Hungarian Academy of Sciences in the frame of ESA GSTP programme in collaboration with Imperial College London and Astronika. The instrument consists of silicon detector based, complex radiation telescopes that cover a wide range of cosmic ray particles, and an inboard and an outboard magnetometer to measure the magnetic field strength in three directions. A small deployment system will be designed with 80 cm-long deployed length as a part of the instrument to host the outboard magnetometer. By realizing a compact design, fitting into ~1.2U following CubeSat standards, global monitoring of the particle radiation environment and the magnetic field environment will be possible with sufficient statistics in the Near-Earth region on board a fleet of CubeSats/SmallSats. Additionally, the RadMag instrument may provide a low-cost alternative for commercially supporting radiation damage estimates on future satellite missions. The first in-orbit demonstration of the instrument will be performed within a 3U CubeSat mission, called RADCUBE, lead by C3S LLC in Hungary as an ESA GSTP IOD project, which is expected to be launched in early 2019.

Primary author

Mr Balazs Zabori (MTA Centre for Energy Research)

Co-authors

Dr Attila Hirn (MTA Centre for Energy Research) Mr Gabor Marosy (C3S Electronics Development LLC) Dr Giovanni Santin (ESA) Dr Jonathan Eastwood (The Blackett Laboratory, Imperial College London) Marta Tokarz (Astronika Sp. z.o.o.) Dr Patrick Brown (The Blackett Laboratory, Imperial College London) Mr Petteri Nieminen (ESA)

Presentation materials